fabric | rblghttp://blog.fabric.ch/
Our subjective but related collection of thematic articles and projects.enSerendipity 1.6 - http://www.s9y.org/Sat, 28 Oct 2017 12:42:44 GMThttp://blog.fabric.ch/templates/default/img/s9y_banner_small.pngRSS: fabric | rblg - Our subjective but related collection of thematic articles and projects.http://blog.fabric.ch/
10021Does public space still exist? | #public #merchandisedhttp://blog.fabric.ch/index.php?/archives/2704-Does-public-space-still-exist-public-merchandised.html
ArchitectureCulture & societyTerritoryhttp://blog.fabric.ch/index.php?/archives/2704-Does-public-space-still-exist-public-merchandised.html#commentshttp://blog.fabric.ch/wfwcomment.php?cid=27040http://blog.fabric.ch/rss.php?version=2.0&type=comments&cid=2704fabric | rblg <info@fabric.ch> (Patrick Keller)
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><em>Note: following my </em><a href="http://blog.fabric.ch/index.php?/archives/2703-Alphabet-Will-Turn-Toronto-Into-a-Living-Laboratory-of-Urban-Design-isitdesign-or-isitbusiness-or-isitstupid.html"><em><u>previous post about Google further entering the public and &quot;common&quot; space sphere with its company Sidewalks</u></em></a><em>, with the goal to merchandize it necessarily, comes this interesting MIT book about the changing nature of public space: </em><a onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/extlink/mitpress.mit.edu/books/public-space-lost-and-found');" href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/public-space-lost-and-found" target="_blank"><em><u>Public Space? Lost &amp; Found</u></em></a><em>.&#160;</em></p>
<p><em>I like to believe that we tried on our side to address this question of public space - mediated and somehow &quot;franchised&quot; by technology - through many of our past works at <a onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/extlink/www.fabric.ch');" href="http://www.fabric.ch" target="_blank"><u>fabric | ch</u></a>. We even tried with</em><em>&#160;our limited means&#160;</em><em>to articulate or bring scaled answers to these questions... </em></p>
<p><em>I'm thinking here about works like </em><a href="http://blog.fabric.ch/index.php?/archives/2228-Paranoid-Shelter-Globale-Surveillance.html" target="_blank"><em><u>Paranoid Shelter</u></em></a><em>, </em><a href="http://blog.fabric.ch/index.php?/archives/1875-I-Weather-as-Deep-Space-Public-Lighting-follow-up-pictures.html" target="_blank"><em><u>I-Weather as Deep Space Public Lighting</u></em></a><em>, </em><a href="http://blog.fabric.ch/index.php?/archives/2668-Public-Platform-of-Future-Past,-extended-study-phase.-Bots,-Ar.I.-tools-data-monitoring-architecture.html" target="_blank"><em><u>Public Platform of Future Past</u></em></a><em>, </em><a href="http://blog.fabric.ch/index.php?/archives/2315-Heterochonie-Heterochrony.html" target="_blank"><em><u>Heterochrony</u></em></a><em>, </em><a href="http://blog.fabric.ch/index.php?/archives/1694-Arctic-Opening-Fenetre-Arctique-follow-up-pictures.html" target="_blank"><u><em>Arctic Opening</em></u></a><em>, and some others. Even with tools like </em><a href="http://blog.fabric.ch/index.php?/archives/2632-Datadroppers,-a-new-old-tool-or-the-project-of-a-data-commune-data-commune-service.html" target="_blank"><u><em>Datadroppers</em></u></a><u><em> </em></u><em>or spaces/environments delivred in the form of data, like </em><a href="http://blog.fabric.ch/index.php?/archives/2513-Deterritorialized-Living-Air,-Daylight,-Time-in-Pau-atmosphere-data.html" target="_blank"><u><em>Deterritorialized Living</em></u></a><em>.</em></p>
<p><i>But the book further develop the question and the field of view, with several essays and proposals by artists and architects.</i></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Via <a onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/extlink/www.abitare.it/en/research/reviews/2017/09/29/mit-book-public-spaces/');" href="http://www.abitare.it/en/research/reviews/2017/09/29/mit-book-public-spaces/">Abitare</a></p>
<p>&#160;-----</p>
<p>Does public space still exist?</p>
<div class="post_header_wrapper">
<p>A collection of essays by prominent creators collected by MIT explores the uncertain nature of common space in the contemporary world. And the answer to the question in the title is yes!</p>
</div>
<p>&#160;</p>
<div class="content" itemprop="articleBody">
<p>Gediminas Urbonas, Ann Lui and Lucas Freeman are the editors of a book that presents a wide range of intellectual reflections and artistic experimentations centred around the concept of public space. The title of the volume, <em>Public Space? Lost and Found</em>, immediately places the reader in a doubtful state: nothing should be taken for granted or as certain, given that we are asking ourselves if, in fact, public space still exists.</p>
<p>This question was originally the basis for a symposium and an exhibition hosted by MIT in 2014, as part of the work of ACT, the acronym for the Art, Culture and Technology programme. Contained within the incredibly well-oiled scientific and technological machine that is MIT, ACT is a strange creature, a hybrid where sometimes extremely different practices cross paths, producing exciting results: exhibitions; critical analyses, which often examine the foundations and the tendencies of the university itself, underpinned by an interest in the political role of research; actual inventions, developed in collaboration with other labs and university courses, that attract students who have a desire to exchange ideas with people from different paths and want the chance to take part in initiatives that operate free from educational preconceptions.</p>
<p>The book is one of the many avenues of communication pursued by ACT, currently directed by Gediminas Urbonas (a Lithuanian visual artist who has taught there since 2009) who succeeded the curator Ute Meta Bauer. The collection explores how the idea of public space is at the heart of what interests artists and designers and how, consequently, the conception, the creation and the use of collective spaces are a response to current-day transformations. These include the spread of digital technologies, climate change, the enforcement of austerity policies due to the reduction in available resources, and the emergence of political arguments that favour separation between people. The concluding conversation <em>Reflexivity and Resistance in Communicative Capitalism</em> between Urbonas and Jodi Dean, an American political scientist, summarises many of the book&rsquo;s ideas: public space becomes the tool for resisting the growing privatisation of our lives.</p>
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<p><img src="http://www.abitare.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/01-pslf-cover_6201.jpg" width="350" height="471" alt="" /></p>
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<p>The book, which features stupendous graphics by Node (a design studio based in Berlin and Oslo), is divided into four sections: <em>paradoxes</em>, <em>ecologies</em>, <em>jurisdictions</em> and <em>signals</em>.</p>
<p>The contents alternate essays (like Angela Vettese&rsquo;s analysis of the role of national pavilions at the Biennale di Venezia or Beatriz Colomina&rsquo;s reflections about the impact of social media on issues of privacy) with the presentation of architectural projects and artistic interventions designed by architects like Andr&eacute;s Jaque, Teddy Cruz and Marjetica Potr or by historic MIT professors like the multimedia artist Antoni Muntadas. The republication of <em>Art and Ecological Consciousness</em>, a 1972 book by Gy&ouml;rgy Kepes, the multi-disciplinary genius who was the director of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT, proves that the institution has long been interested in these topics.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><img src="http://www.abitare.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/0028-05-pslf-paradoxes-adrian-blackwell_620.jpg" width="500" height="318" alt="" /></p>
<p><img src="http://www.abitare.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/0132-02-pslf-ecologies-urbonas-studio_620.jpg" width="500" height="318" alt="" /></p>
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<p>This collection of contributions supported by captivating iconography signals a basic optimism: the documented actions and projects and the consciousness that motivates the thinking of many creators proves there is a collective mobilisation, often starting from the bottom, that seeks out and creates the conditions for communal life. Even if it is never explicitly written, the answer to the question in the title is a resounding yes.</p>
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<p><img src="http://www.abitare.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/0164-04-pslf-jurisdictions-section-contents_620.jpg" width="500" height="318" alt="" /></p>
<p><img src="http://www.abitare.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/0200-03-pslf-jurisdictions-krzysztof-wodiczko_620.jpg" width="500" height="318" alt="" /></p>
<p><img src="http://www.abitare.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/0254-07-pslf-signals-beatriz-colomina_620.jpg" width="500" height="318" alt="" /></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>----------------------------------------------------</p>
<p><strong>Public Space? Lost and Found<br />
</strong>Gediminas Urbonas, Ann Lui and Lucas Freeman<br />
SA + P Press, MIT School of Architecture and Planning<br />
Cambridge MA, 2017<br />
300 pages, $40<br />
<a onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/extlink/act.mit.edu/');" title="mit" href="http://act.mit.edu/" rel="external nofollow" class="ext-link">mit.edu</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><strong>Overview</strong></p>
<p><span itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Book">&ldquo;Public space&rdquo; is a potent and contentious topic among artists, architects, and cultural producers. <i>Public Space? Lost and Found</i> considers the role of aesthetic practices within the construction, identification, and critique of shared territories, and how artists or architects&mdash;the &ldquo;antennae of the race&rdquo;&mdash;can heighten our awareness of rapidly changing formulations of public space in the age of digital media, vast ecological crises, and civic uprisings.<br />
<br />
<i>Public Space? Lost and Found</i> combines significant recent projects in art and architecture with writings by historians and theorists. Contributors investigate strategies for responding to underrepresented communities and areas of conflict through the work of Marjetica Potr&#269; in Johannesburg and Teddy Cruz on the Mexico-U.S. border, among others. They explore our collective stakes in ecological catastrophe through artistic<i> </i>research such as atelier d&rsquo;architecture autog&eacute;r&eacute;e&rsquo;s hubs for community action and recycling in Colombes, France, and Brian Holmes&rsquo;s theoretical investigation of new forms of aesthetic perception in the age of the Anthropocene. Inspired by artist and MIT professor Antoni Muntadas&rsquo; early coining of the term &ldquo;media landscape,&rdquo; contributors also look ahead, casting a critical eye on the fraught impact of digital media and the internet on public space.<br />
<br />
This book is the first in a new series of volumes produced by the MIT School of Architecture and Planning&rsquo;s Program in Art, Culture and Technology.<br />
<br />
<b>Contributors<br />
</b>atelier d'architecture autog&eacute;r&eacute;e, Dennis Adams, Bik Van Der Pol, Adrian Blackwell, Ina Blom, Christoph Brunner with Gerald Raunig, N&eacute;stor Garc&iacute;a Canclini, Colby Chamberlain, Beatriz Colomina, Teddy Cruz with Fonna Forman, Jodi Dean, Juan Herreros, Brian Holmes, Andr&eacute;s Jaque, Caroline Jones, Coryn Kempster with Julia Jamrozik, Gy&ouml;rgy Kepes, Rikke Luther, Matthew Mazzotta, Metahaven, Timothy Morton, Antoni Muntadas, Otto Piene, Marjetica Potr&#269;, Nader Tehrani, Troy Therrien, Gedminas and Nomeda Urbonas, Angela Vettese, Mariel Viller&eacute;, Mark Wigley, Krzysztof Wodiczko<br />
<br />
<b>With section openings from<br />
</b>Ana Mar&iacute;a Le&oacute;n, T. J. Demos, Doris Sommer, and Catherine D'Ignazio</span></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
</div>
Thu, 26 Oct 2017 09:23:00 +0000http://blog.fabric.ch/index.php?/archives/2704-guid.htmlarchitecturecitizencityculture & societydataminingmonitoringpublicscience & technologysurveillanceterritoryurbanismAlphabet Will Turn Toronto Into a Living Laboratory of Urban Design | #isitdesign? or #isitbusiness? or #isitstupid?http://blog.fabric.ch/index.php?/archives/2703-Alphabet-Will-Turn-Toronto-Into-a-Living-Laboratory-of-Urban-Design-isitdesign-or-isitbusiness-or-isitstupid.html
ArchitectureCulture & societyScience & technologyhttp://blog.fabric.ch/index.php?/archives/2703-Alphabet-Will-Turn-Toronto-Into-a-Living-Laboratory-of-Urban-Design-isitdesign-or-isitbusiness-or-isitstupid.html#commentshttp://blog.fabric.ch/wfwcomment.php?cid=27030http://blog.fabric.ch/rss.php?version=2.0&type=comments&cid=2703fabric | rblg <info@fabric.ch> (Patrick Keller)
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><em>Note: More than a year ago, <a href="http://blog.fabric.ch/index.php?/archives/2653-Sidewalks-labs-or-when-well-literally-inhabit-within-Google-data-smart-cities.html" target="_blank"><u>I posted about this move by Alphabet-Google toward becoming city designers</u></a>... I tried to point out the problems related to a company which business is to collect data becoming the main investor in public space and common goods (the city is still part of the commons, isn't it?) But of course, this is, again, about big business (&quot;to make the world a better place&quot; ... indeed) and slick ideas.</em></p>
<p><em>But it is highly problematic that a company start investing in public space &quot;for free&quot;. We all know what this mean now, don't we? It is not needed and not desired.</em></p>
<p><em>So where are the &quot;starchitects&quot; now? What do they say? Not much... Where are all the &quot;regular&quot; architects as well? Almost invisible, tricked in the wrong stakes, with -- I'm sorry...-- very few of them being only able to identify the problem. </em></p>
<p><em>This is not about building a great building for a big brand or taking a conceptual position, not even about &quot;die Gestalt&quot; anymore. It is about everyday life for 66% of Earth population by 2050 (</em><a onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/extlink/www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/world-urbanization-prospects-2014.html');" href="http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/world-urbanization-prospects-2014.html" target="_blank"><u><em>UN study</em></u></a><em>). It is, in this precise case, about information technologies and mainly information stategies and businesses that materialize into structures of life.</em></p>
<p><em>Shouldn't this be a major concern?</em></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Via <a onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/extlink/www.technologyreview.com/');" href="https://www.technologyreview.com/" target="_blank">MIT Technology Review</a></p>
<p>-----&#160;</p>
<p>By <a onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/extlink/www.technologyreview.com/profile/jamie-condliffe/');" href="https://www.technologyreview.com/profile/jamie-condliffe/" target="_blank">Jamie Condliffe</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.technologyreview.com/i/images/sidewalk-labs---mobility-vision.png?sw=1122" width="500" height="281" alt="" /></p>
<p><em>fabric | rblg legend: this hand drawn image contains all the marketing clich&eacute;s (green, blue, clean air, bikes, local market, public transportation, autonomous car in a happy village atmosphere... Can't be further from what it will be).</em></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>An 800-acre strip of Toronto's waterfront may show us how cities of the future could be built. Alphabet&rsquo;s urban innovation team, Sidewalk Labs, <a onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/extlink/sidewalktoronto.ca/?utm_source=MIT%20Technology%20Review&amp;amp;utm_campaign=3255438ce7-The_Download&amp;amp;utm_medium=email&amp;amp;utm_term=0_997ed6f472-3255438ce7-153680577');" href="https://sidewalktoronto.ca/?utm_source=MIT%20Technology%20Review&amp;utm_campaign=3255438ce7-The_Download&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_997ed6f472-3255438ce7-153680577" target="_blank">has <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none;">announced</span></a> a plan to inject urban design and new technologies into the city's quayside to boost &quot;sustainability, affordability, mobility, and economic opportunity.&quot;</p>
<p>Huh?</p>
<p>Picture streets filled with robo-taxis, autonomous trash collection, modular buildings, and clean power generation. The only snag may be the humans: as we&rsquo;ve said in the<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> past, </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><a onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/extlink/www.technologyreview.com/s/602390/humans-do-dumb-things-with-smart-cities/?utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&amp;amp;utm_campaign=3255438ce7-The_Download&amp;amp;utm_medium=email&amp;amp;utm_term=0_997ed6f472-3255438ce7-153680577');" href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602390/humans-do-dumb-things-with-smart-cities/?utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&amp;utm_campaign=3255438ce7-The_Download&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_997ed6f472-3255438ce7-153680577" target="_blank">people can do dumb things with smart cities</a></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">. Per</span>haps Toronto will be different.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
Fri, 20 Oct 2017 10:51:00 +0000http://blog.fabric.ch/index.php?/archives/2703-guid.htmlarchitectureautomationcityculture & societydatadesign (environments)monitoringscience & technologyurbanism